Portland Smart Water Pipe Infrastructure Also Distributes Electricity

A new section of a very smart water pipe infrastructure is now operational in Portland, Oregon. It not only delivers water, it provides hydropower electricity en route.

According to Next City, this clean energy infrastructure innovation has promise for a larger role in the future.

Conceptually, the notion of capturing available energy from the force provided by moving water is sublimely simple. Take hydropower as an example, where cascading water generates enough force to turn a turbine. On large hydroelectric dams, water released from a dam has enough force to move huge turbines, which in turn generate electricity to feed the grid.

But as writer Rachel Dovey has pointed out, while hydropower tops the list of widely adopted renewables, its difficult to harness on a city scale. First of all, closely situated hydroelectric dams dont exist for most cities. Though free-flow and tidal projects exist, they dont necessarily mesh with a dense municipal grid.

Here is where Portlands new pipe system tops the list for innovative solutions. Greg Semler, from Lucid Energy, provided a simple analysis of an urban water system, saying many gravity-fed water delivery systems pump water uphill into reservoirs and then send it rushing downhill to water users, controlling the deluge with a series of valves.

In Portland, placement of a turbine was altered. We put a turbine in front of that water, the turbine spins a generator and that converts flowing water to electricity, said Semler, CEO of Lucid Energy, a provider of renewable energy and smart water management solutions that improve the economics of delivering water.

Water rates are not expected to increase, a Portland Water Bureau spokesperson has said. In fact, the project is expected to generate $2 million worth of electricity over the next 20 years, which will then be sold to Portland General Electric, the system investor, and the Water Bureau will share the returns. After 20 years, the Portland Water Bureau will have the option of owning the system and the energy it produces.

While the idea behind this enterprise is very attractive, not all American cities can rush into the business of producing energy through water pipes because their pipe infrastructure often date back to the turn of the previous century. It is certain, though, that old infrastructures like these will have to be updated sooner rather than further down the road.